Friday, January 11, 2013

It's a Start

Do you ever get a creative "itch"--the sudden urge to draw, paint, sculpt or collage? This happens to me all the time, but it can be tough to know how to start. It makes me wonder where great artists like Edouard Manet found inspiration...

Edouard Manet, Blue Venice, 1875

Manet began Blue Venicewhile staying in the Italian city of Venice. He made sketches of gondolas, the special kind of boat pictured, floating on the Grand Canal. He finished the painting after returning to his studio in Paris.

Like Manet, I decided to make a picture step-by-step, starting with few key pieces. Here's what you'll need to do the project:

A magazine with pictures you like

Scissors

Glue

Paper

Colored pencils, markers, or crayons

I started by cutting out a few favorite pictures from a magazine.

Remember to cut close to the edges!

Then I glued them onto a sheet of paper.

Leave lots of space around your pictures.

Then, using markers, crayons, or colored pencils, draw around the pictures you've chosen. Try to fill up the whole page. Starting with a sun, purple t-shirt, red teapot, and burger, I made a colored pencil drawing of my friend Angela sitting at a sidewalk cafe. Yum!

Ready for spring...

"A job begun is half done." Try this project and you won't get stuck at the beginning!